Character Creation, Part 2
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[*] Vampire Coast
Across the Great Ocean from the Old World, Lustria is the southern of the two continents collectively known as the New World. Most of it is covered with tropical rainforests and dotted with ancient ruined temple-cities of unknown origin, which are of great interest to many explorers due to being filled with golden plaques depicting things most explorers don't care about because it's gold. Usually objecting to this interest are the strange beings known as Lizardmen, who tend to react with extreme violence to intrusion. But one notable outlier is the former Temple-City of Huatl on Lustria's eastern coast. Many centuries ago Huatl was conquered by the Vampire known as Luthor Harkon, who not only looted it of its gold and secrets, but also took its location at the centre of what would come to be known as the Vampire Coast and the stone that had made up its buildings to craft the capital of his Pirate Kingdom and the anchorage of his Admiralty. Some call it New Bechafen, others call it Speisekammer, sometimes even stranger labels like New Strygos or New Lahmia are applied to it. But most of those that call it home, call it Awakening.
No more smell of rot hangs over it than any other port city, as in this place, a corpse rotting is a resource being lost. The taverns ring with shanties in every living language, even though some of the throats aren't. The gold flows in peace because it all ultimately flows in service of the Pirate King, either to his coffers or furthering some scheme. Not entirely a safe city - no city so filled with those so accustomed to violence, and with so many who see many of their neighbours as meals, could ever be entirely safe - but it is no less safe than many cities in this era. And at the docks, amongst the sleek hulls and black flags of the Arch Grand Commodore's fleet can be seen fatter, slower hulls, made safe by some subtlety in the way they hang their flags, many owing allegiance to names some would recognize and some owing allegiance to names everyone would. The dirty secret of piracy is that the whole enterprise would fall apart within a year if there weren't people willing to buy goods from pirates.
In this place is you, pursuing some ambition that cannot be pursued elsewhere, or pursued by some dire fate that cannot be evaded elsewhere, or both. But who are you? And, perhaps more relevantly, perhaps less, what are you?
[ ] Druchii Warlock
Amongst the Dark Elves of Naggaroth, one of the greatest taboos is against any male magic user that is not the Witch King himself, owing to a prophecy saying that a Dark King will be slain by a firstborn son learned in the darkest arts. The Warlocks that served the Witch King at the time he learned the prophecy were struck with a curse that consigned their souls to the Chaos God Slaanesh, but any that dabble in arts forbidden to them since then are simply slain outright, either by the Witch King's assassins or by any who seek to claim the sizable standing bounty on them. Perhaps you are guilty of this, perhaps you are merely accused. In either case, there are few places that could be considered a sanctuary from the Witch King's assassins, but the service of Luthor Harkon the Sorcerer is one such place.
Subvote options: Naggarond, Hag Graef, Clar Karond, Har Ganeth, Karond Kar, Shade Clans.
[ ] Empire Witch
Of all the torments that might visit themselves upon a practitioner of unsanctioned magic in the eastern provinces of the Empire, one of the more inexplicable are the recruitment offers one begins to receive from Luther the Veilwalker. Vampiric temptation is, of course, far from unknown in that part of the world, but usually it comes from Sylvania or the Silver Pinnacle, not from someone nobody's ever heard of on the other side of the world. But either the offer sounds good or it has a way of ensorcelling, as more than one might expect end up taking up the offer and making their way to Swamp Town, the Empire's colony in Lustria, and from there being smuggled to the Vampire Coast. Some become Vampires, others Necromancers, an unfortunate few catch the wrong facet of the Pirate King at the wrong time and are transformed into terrible spirits called Syreens. But many simply end up plying the same trade in a new place, where there's about the same amount of terrible things roaming the streets at night but at least none of them are Witch Hunters.
Subvote options: Hedgewise, Hag Witch, Druid, Magicker, Warlock, Black Magister.
[ ] Necromancer Turncoat
After the founder of Necromancy was defeated, his works were reverse-engineered by Princess Neferatem and High Priest W'soran of Lahmia, and they and their coterie founded the Vampiric Bloodlines. When they, in turn, were defeated by the then-living forces of the rest of Nehekhara, the Vampires scattered across the world, and with them went Nagash's art. In modern times, there are few places with no Vampires and even fewer with no Necromancers. Most die swiftly at the hands of Witch Hunters, or mishandled magic, or their unruly creations, but of those that survive, few actually thrive. Even the most legendary of Necromancers end up living miserable lives hiding in crypts or mausoleums, and the less legendary are very often under the thumb of Vampires that see them as entirely expendable. And for much the same reasons that many sailors do, a portion of these poor unfortunate souls turn their back on whatever cause they are sworn to and embrace the freedom of the waves. The Arch Grand Commodore always has a place in his service for those that possess such skills.
Subvote options: Necrarch, Von Carstein, Strygoi, Lahmian, Mahtmasi, Arkhanaaz, Barrow Lord.
[ ] Nehekharan Abdicator
Throughout the history of Nehekhara, the Mortuary Cult made their promises of paradise; upon the performing of Nagash's Great Ritual, each of those promises was revealed false. Even Settra, King of Kings, who had received every scrap of expertise and attention that the Cult was capable of, was so enraged at the unlife he found himself trapped within that he banished the Grand Hierophant from the Great Cities to walk the world until he learned enough to fulfill the promises that were made. How could the lesser royals, who received just enough by the attention of the Mortuary Cult to know how much they've lost, robbed of paradise by the lies of the Cult and of earthly power by Settra's Reign of a Million Years, accept the eternity that has been thrust upon them? Those who ask themselves this, how must they feel to discover that so many of their peers so meekly accept whatever sliver of power there is to go around when every royal to ever be entombed must compete for it? Perhaps it is because they know that so few places in the world will accept the walking dead of Nehekhara amongst them, or perhaps because they don't know of the few that would. Lutr the Harbourmaster knows the value of the lesser royals of Nehekhara, and how to manipulate them.
Subvote options: Firstborn, Heir, General, Admiral, Charioteer, Warsphinx Rider, Princess.
[ ] Norscan Sage
Amongst the warriors of the far north, a þulr is one that is learned in both lore and law, tasked with preserving knowledge and reciting it faithfully when called upon. It is a profession that requires a skilled mind and a sharp tongue as well as a good memory, and while most who cultivate it are happy to settle down in one tribe or another to enjoy a life of relative safety and relative plenty in places where most will never know either, some gain a taste for the power that knowing what others do not allows them. Many of those end up in Skeggi, seeking to wrest the secrets of the Lizardfolk and the Valkyries, and it is to Skeggi that Haakon the Reaver comes to seek skilled hands and clever minds to join his fleet. Haakon the Reaver knows there are no finer warriors or sages than the Norscans, and the Norscans know that there are far worse fates than an eternity on the waves.
Subvote options: Eastern, Southern, Western, Northern, Far Northern.
[ ] Retired Pirate
One might think that 'retirement' would be a nasty euphemism amongst a partially undead crew usually captained by Necromancers, but the simple fact of the matter is that enslaving the undead is just plain unnecessary work. The oceans are awash with the untimely dead who would normally have no alternative to waiting to see if a complete dissolution or the gullet of the Galleon's Graveyard will get them first, and a great many of them are happy to serve anyone that offers them a scrap of motive force to allow them to ply the top of the waves instead of drifting listlessly beneath them. Any pirate that finishes a voyage and opts not to sign on to another is left in peace with their cut of the booty in the full expectation that in years, or months, or days, they'll have either spent it all and need to join another crew, or if they're living frugally, that will inflict enough boredom that they'll want to join another crew. But some don't. Some of the living go back to wherever their original home was, some of the Vampiric join the Depth Guard or the Admiralty, some of the dead seek out either final rites or a necromancer for hire to turn them into something more preferable. And some go on to stranger jobs still.
Subvote options: Human, Zombie, Wight, Ghoul, Vampire, Spirit.
[ ] Skaven Revenant
Life amongst the rat-people of the Skaven is, above all else, short. The natural lifespan of the Skaven is itself not especially long, and this is exacerbated by the way that any sign of encroaching age is a weakness that is swiftly exploited. Most Skaven react to this by seeking to gain more power faster than age robs them of it; precious few seek refuge in the methods of unnatural preservation that necromancy offers, not least of which because most that do are smote by their terrible and jealous God, the Horned Rat. But few is not none, and most is not all. If there is any that could protect you against the punishment of the Horned Rat, it is the Vampire Progenitors, who are the undying scions of the Great Necromancer, the only foe that the Skaven ever truly united against. Pledge your life to Lutr the Abyssal, so that death may never find you.
Subvote options: Grey Seer, Warlock Engineer, Eshin Sorcerer, Master Moulder, Plague Priest, Warlord.
- There will be a twenty-four hour moratorium to allow new suggestions to be considered and possibly included. Subvotes are not to be voted on now, they are included to give an idea of what range of possible backgrounds the option in question could have come from, and will likely be a part of the vote for their skillset.
- If you have a suggestion, I encourage you to consider framing it in the way I have above. I know that at least some of you are thinking 'Dwarf'; if you are going to go forward with that suggestion, then please give it with a compelling reason why there might be a subset of Dwarves willing to pledge themselves to the Pirate King of the Vampire Coast.
- The Necromancer Turncoat is a mortal Necromancer; the Vampire bloodlines listed in the subvote are those that the Turncoat served and then elected to stop serving.
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